Parents moving out of state, but car that I use is registered to them for insurance purposes

College Life
1

I attend college in OH and my parents currently live in OH. The car that I use in college is owned by my dad, and the car and myself are covered under his auto insurance. My parents will soon be moving to TN and we are very confused as to what needs to happen with the car, particularly because we want everything kept under my dad’s insurance to minimize costs (since having my own insurance plan would be much more expensive than me just being under my dad’s plan due to my age). But to clarify, the car will mostly be used in OH.

Questions are:
-What should happen to the registration of the vehicle? I assume that since we want it to remain under my dad’s name and he will be in TN, it should be registered in TN…correct?

-Should I have a TN drivers license or retain my OH license? If the car is registered in TN, is there a problem with me primarily using it if my license is for OH? If I get a TN license, could I run into issues such as limitations with having an out-of-state license or needing to go to TN to handle things (such as license renewal, which doesn’t occur that often though)?

Hopefully this situation makes sense because it barely makes sense to me! Hopefully someone out there has gone through something similar and has experience.

2

Since your dad (the owner) is moving to TN, then I would expect the car will need to be registered in TN unless he has property in OH.

The insurance should not be an issue. He will need to tell the insurance company that you are a student. He will also need to tell them that you are the primary driver of the car and that you will have it at school. This happens all the time when students go OOS.

As for the license, I would get an TN license unless you are legally a OH resident after the move. I suspect that you would legally be considered an TN resident. Not a big deal. Most states just require that you retake the written test.

3

I’m in a similar situation and will be getting a license from the state where my parents live, as that is my permanent residence. My parents are actually putting the car under my sibling’s name because insurance would be cheaper in our college state than our home state.